(3.5 stars) 

I went into Shadow and Bone knowing next to nothing about the plot and characters, except for that everyone on the book side of the internet seems to be obsessed with the Darkling. I have many questions about that because from what I just read he’s a total

power hungry D-bag. I get the whole dark haired, powerful, bad boy allure but when the level of badness reaches his, it kinda loses it for me. I will admit, I wasn’t suspecting the turn of motive so that was a nice surprise and it really upped the ante and my commitment to reading the book. At first I was really just along for the ride and committed to seeing Alina find her powers. I loved Mal from the get-go and I’m really disappointed about our last scene with Genya. I thought she was a really good friend to Alina but she appears to be turning out like all the other Grisha: selfish and desperate for power.

 

One of the things about this book that drew me in the most was the setting. Leigh Bardugo committed herself to a Russian  inspired atmosphere as opposed to the typical European setting I see in lots of YA fantasy. I would love to see the world a bit more fleshed out in the next books though, because all I could envision most of the time while reading was a snowy, forest, wasteland. 

This book somehow managed to mediate itself between being slow and fast paced, but it alternated enough for me not to get bored with it. I don’t know how soon I’m committed to reading the next book, but I do really want to get through this trilogy because I’ve heard amazing things about the Six of Crows duology.